A small but exciting piece of research was completed recently. Dr Marlynne Grant has conducted a longitudinal study on a cohort of students learning to read from Reception to Year 2 with a systematic synthetic phonics programme called ‘Sound Discovery’. She followed a Reception class of 30 students in a catholic primary school designated for travellers of Irish origin. Here are a few of the findings:

By Year 2 the class were 28 months above their chronological age for reading and 21 months ahead for spelling. The overall achievement range was 7.07 years to 13.09 years for reading and 7.01 years to 14.09 years for spelling.

By Year 2 children eligible for Free School Meals were on average 24 months above their chronological age for reading and 20 months above for spelling.

By year 2 the boys in the class were on average 36 months above chronological age for…